Sun City Agreement

Last updated November 21, 2024

The Sun City Agreement was signed between some of the warring parties in the Second Congo War on 2 April 2002 at the luxury South African casino resort of Sun City, as a result of the Inter-Congolese dialogue (ICD).^[1]^[2] Delegates hoped that this would be a historic "final act", ending more than four years of war and setting up a government of national unity.

Participants

The partial agreement was reached between the government, the Ugandan-backed Mouvement de liberation du Congo (MLC) armed opposition group and a majority of civil society and unarmed political opposition groups. Unfortunately, the parties were not able to establish a new constitution and government, despite repeated attempts.

However, another armed opposition movement, the Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma), backed by Rwanda, along with several parties of the unarmed political opposition including the Union pour la Democratie et le Progres Social (UDPS) of the veteran Congolese politician and former prime minister, Etienne Tshisekedi refused to sign the accord, which led to concerns about a return to violence.

Treaty terms

The agreement laid down a framework for providing the Congo with a unified, multi-party government and a timeline for democratic elections.

Among other stipulations, the agreement allowed Joseph Kabila to remain president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo during a transition period of two years, extendable to three, with Jean-Pierre Bemba (the leader of the MLC) serving as prime minister in a transitional government.

It was further stipulated that Kabila would share power with four vice-presidents - one from each of the two main armed opposition movements, one from the government and one from the unarmed political opposition. Ministries would be divided up and former opposition fighters would be integrated into the army and police.

After the conclusion of the accord, critics noted that there were no stipulations regarding the unification of the army, which weakened the effectiveness of the agreement. There were several reported breaches of the agreement, but initially it resulted in a reduction in the fighting.

There was also criticism that the delegates were not provided with a complete dossier of documentation at the end of the agreement (such as minutes of meetings, commission reports and resolutions), which hindered informed debate in the Congo. It was also felt that the principles which guided the formation of the follow-up organs of the Sun City Agreement were not clear.

The Sun City Agreement did not stop the conflict, as shown by subsequent events (see Second Congo War).

During the agreement, the delegates considered giving the country of the Democratic Republic of the Congo away to the Kingdom of Belgium in exchange for humanitarian aid and sending an intervention force to help the central government fight the Rwandan/Ugandan backed Congolese rebels.

Related Research Articles

The earliest known human settlements in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo have been dated back to the Middle Stone Age, approximately 90,000 years ago. The first real states, such as the Kongo, the Lunda, the Luba and Kuba, appeared south of the equatorial forest on the savannah from the 14th century onwards.

Politics of the Democratic Republic of Congo take place in the framework of a republic in transition from a civil war to a semi-presidential republic.

Joseph Kabila Kabange is a Congolese politician who served as President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo between January 2001 and January 2019. He took office ten days after the assassination of his father, President Laurent-Désiré Kabila in the context of the Second Congo War. He was allowed to remain in power after the 2003 Pretoria Accord ended the war as the president of the country's new transitional government. He was elected as president in 2006 and re-elected in 2011 for a second term. Since stepping down after the 2018 election, Kabila, as a former president, serves as a senator for life.

The Second Congo War, also known as Africa's World War or the Great War of Africa, was a major conflict that began on 2 August 1998 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), just over a year after the First Congo War. The war initially erupted when Congolese president Laurent-Désiré Kabila turned against his former allies from Rwanda and Uganda, who had helped him seize power. Eventually, the conflict expanded, drawing in nine African nations and approximately 25 armed groups, making it one of the largest wars in African history.

The Burundian Civil War was a civil war in Burundi lasting from 1993 to 2005. The civil war was the result of longstanding ethnic divisions between the Hutu and the Tutsi ethnic groups. The conflict began following the first multi-party elections in the country since its independence from Belgium in 1962, and is seen as formally ending with the swearing-in of President Pierre Nkurunziza in August 2005. Children were widely used by both sides in the war. The estimated death toll stands at 300,000.

The Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo-Zaire, also known by the French acronym AFDL, was a coalition of Rwandan, Ugandan, Burundian, and Congolese dissidents, disgruntled minority groups, and nations that toppled Mobutu Sese Seko and brought Laurent-Désiré Kabila to power in the First Congo War. Although the group was successful in overthrowing Mobutu, the alliance fell apart after Kabila did not agree to be dictated by his foreign backers, Rwanda and Uganda, which marked the beginning of the Second Congo War in 1998.

The First Congo War, also known as Africa's First World War, was a civil and international military conflict that lasted from 24 October 1996 to 16 May 1997, primarily taking place in Zaire. The war resulted in the overthrow of Zairean President Mobutu Sese Seko, who was replaced by rebel leader Laurent-Désiré Kabila. This conflict, which also involved multiple neighboring countries, set the stage for the Second Congo War (1998–2003) due to tensions between Kabila and his former allies.

The Movement for the Liberation of the Congo is a political party in Democratic Republic of the Congo. Formerly a rebel group operating in the Democratic Republic of Congo that fought the government throughout the Second Congo War, it subsequently took part in the transitional government and is one of the main opposition parties.

The Transitional Government of the Democratic Republic of Congo was tasked with moving from the state riven by the Second Congo War (1998–2003) to a government based upon a constitution agreed on by consensus. In 2001, President Laurent Kabila was assassinated, and his son Joseph Kabila was named head of state.

The Army for the Liberation of Rwanda was a rebel group largely composed of former members of the Interahamwe and Rwandan Armed Forces. Operating mostly in the eastern regions of the Democratic Republic of the Congo along the border with Rwanda, it carried out attacks throughout the Second Congo War against forces aligned with Rwanda and Uganda. In 2000, the ALiR agreed to merge with the Hutu resistance movement based in Kinshasa into the new Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR). ALiR was largely supplanted by the FDLR by 2001.

Azarias Ruberwa Manywa is a Congolese politician, lawyer, and public figure. During the Second Congo War he was Secretary-General of the Rassemblement Congolais pour la Démocratie (RCD-G) rebel group. Following the war, he was one of the vice-presidents in the transitional government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo between 2003-2006. He has also been the leader and president of RCD-G's political party since 2003. He is a member of the Banyamulenge community of South Kivu who belong to the Tutsi ethnic group.

Congolese history in the 2000s has primarily revolved around the Second Congo War (1998–2003) and the empowerment of a transitional government.

The National Congress for the Defence of the People is a political armed militia established by Laurent Nkunda in the Kivu region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in December 2006. The CNDP was engaged in the Kivu conflict, an armed conflict against the military of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In January 2009, the CNDP split and Nkunda was arrested by the Rwanda government. The remaining CNDP splinter faction, led by Bosco Ntaganda, was planned to be integrated into the national army.

The 1990s in the Republic of the Congo, starting with a collapse of the People's Republic of the Congo single party government and the promise of multi-party democracy, gradually slid into political controversy, culminating in a 1997-99 Civil War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United Nations Security Council Resolution 1304</span> United Nations resolution adopted in 2000

United Nations Security Council resolution 1304, adopted unanimously on 16 June 2000, after recalling resolutions 1234 (1999), 1258 (1999), 1273 (1999), 1279 (1999), 1291 (1999) and 1296 (2000) on situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Council demanded the immediate withdrawal of Ugandan, Rwandan, Congolese opposition and other armed groups from Kisangani in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The Congolese Rally for Democracy, also known as the Rally for Congolese Democracy, is a political party and a former rebel group that operated in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). It was supported by the government of Rwanda, and was a major armed faction in the Second Congo War (1998-2003). It became a social liberal political party in 2003.

The Congolese Rally for Democracy–Goma was a faction of the Congolese Rally for Democracy, a rebel movement based in Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) during the Second Congo War (1998–2003). After the war, some members of the group continued sporadic fighting in North Kivu. The movement also entered mainstream politics, participating in democratic elections with little success.

The March 23 Movement, often abbreviated as M23 and also known as the Congolese Revolutionary Army, is a Congolese rebel military group. Based in eastern areas of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), it operates mainly in the province of North Kivu, which borders both Uganda and Rwanda. The M23 rebellion of 2012 to 2013 against the DRC government led to the displacement of large numbers of people. On 20 November 2012, M23 took control of Goma, a provincial capital with a population of a million people, but it was requested to evacuate it by the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region because the DRC government had finally agreed to negotiate. In late 2012, Congolese troops, along with UN troops, retook control of Goma, and M23 announced a ceasefire and said that it wanted to resume peace talks.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission was a truth commission which ran from July 2003 - February 2007 to investigate and promote national unity as a response to the atrocities committed in the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo between the Congolese army, Congolese rebels, and foreign insurgents.

André Kisase Ngandu was a Congolese rebel leader. An insurgent in the Simba rebellion of the 1960s, he immigrated to East and later West Germany where he lived for many years. He resumed his rebel activity with Ugandan support in the 1990s and emerged as leader of the National Council of Resistance for Democracy (CNRD) which waged an insurgency in eastern Zaire.

References

↑ Guttieri, Karen; Piombo, Jessica (2007). Interim Governments: Institutional Bridges to Peace and Democracy?. US Institute of Peace Press. pp. 174–190. ISBN 978-1-60127-017-7.
↑ Haskin, Jeanne M. (2005). The Tragic State of the Congo: From Decolonization to Dictatorship. Algora Publishing. pp. 129–131. ISBN 978-0-87586-418-1.

External links

Inter-Congolese Negotiations: The Final Act (Sun City Agreement) UN Peacemaker Database

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[1] Guttieri, Karen; Piombo, Jessica (2007). Interim Governments: Institutional Bridges to Peace and Democracy?. US Institute of Peace Press. pp. 174–190. ISBN 978-1-60127-017-7.

[2] Haskin, Jeanne M. (2005). The Tragic State of the Congo: From Decolonization to Dictatorship. Algora Publishing. pp. 129–131. ISBN 978-0-87586-418-1.

[1]

[2]